Healing Without Getting High: THCA/CBDA
THCA & CBDA: The Benefits of Cannabis Healing without the Psychoactive High
THCA and CBDA, the acid forms of THC and CBD, are two of the more than 100 cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant in its raw form. When cannabis is heated, as when you smoke, vape or decarb (heat) it before making edibles or tinctures, the acid forms - THCA and CBDA - are converted into THC and CBD. In the case of THCA, the heat is what activates the THCA to become psychoactive THC.
At Terra Mater Farma we’ve been experimenting with making tinctures that contain THCA and CBDA. Ongoing studies are revealing that THCA and CBDA have similar antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and all the other benefits of their counterparts THC and CBD. But since THCA differs from THC in that the former isn’t psychoactive, it means you can consume as much as you need to restore your endocannabinoid levels without getting high.
The studies cited herein will often mix isolated forms of THCA with a THC isolate and other isolated cannabinoids in trying to find the best treatment for patients. There is much room for continuing experimentation, but mixing isolates is not a whole plant remedy and not as effective. Still the studies provide useful information.
Crone Grown has now made a new tincture which contains THCA and CBDA, along with all the other cannabinoids of the whole plant, and we’ve mixed in another whole plant tincture where we’ve heated the cannabis, so you’re also getting CBD. We call this our Daily Dose. Add a little whole plant tincture with THC in it and you’ve got the best of both worlds!
And even more exciting, a number of studies have shown that these acidic forms of the cannabinoids are more potent typically than their isolated compounds. [x] This means using a whole plant preparation, you should need much less for an effective dose.
Below are just a few of the studies revealing the benefits of THCA and CBDA:
THCA anti-inflammatory properties are showing promise with arthritis, lupus, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn’s Disease.[i] One study demonstrated that THCA proved to be a better candidate than CBD when used for its anti-inflammatory properties in treating Irritable Bowel Syndrome.[ii]
THCA improved cognitive symptoms and allowed an Alzheimer’s patient to reduce the use of other drugs.[iii]
THCA has been advocated for use in neurodegenerative diseases and seizures as a neuroprotective agent, with studies using a Parkinson’s disease model and a Huntington’s model. [iv]
THCA has shown the potential to inhibit cancer growth. [v] It was also found to have anti-cancer properties in tissue cultures in the lab when looking at breast cancer cells.[vi] CBDA has similarly been shown to inhibit cancer cell growth.[vii]
CBDA has been shown to have similar effectiveness as CBD in reducing seizures but was able to achieve those results at a lower dose. [viii] THCA is also showing promise in treating the seizures of epilepsy. In a 2017 peer-reviewed article, three doctors studied 272 patients with epileptic seizures, finding the use of whole plant medicine to be superior to the single isolate strategies favored by Big Pharma. The study found great success using CBD and THCA for controlling epileptic seizures, showing significant reductions in seizures. [ix]
CBDA and THCA have been found to reduce nausea in several studies. [xi] Scientists at the University of Guelph in Ontario have demonstrated that low doses of THCA—about 10-100 times lower than the requisite dose of THC, prevent nausea in rats. [x] In addition, they found that THCA synergizes with CBDA, increasing its effectiveness for nausea.
We are excited to see where these new studies and our new experimentation of THCA and CBDA leads.
[i] Evaluation of the cyclooxygenase inhibiting effects of six major cannabinoids isolated from Cannabis sativa https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21532172/
[ii] Anti-Inflammatory Activity in Colon Models Is Derived from Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinolic Acid That Interacts with Additional Compounds in Cannabis Extracts, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5627671/
[iii] DOSING THCA: LESS IS MORE Discover the clinical and laboratory research on THCA for epilepsy, chronic pain, digestive disorders, and more https://www.projectcbd.org/medicine/dosing-thca-less-more
[iv] Effects of cannabinoids Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol, Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid and cannabidiol in MPP+ affected murine mesencephalic cultures, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22571976/; Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid is a potent PPARγ agonist with neuroprotective activity, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28853159/
[v] Anticancer Effect of New Cannabinoids Derived from Tetrahydrocannabinolic Acid on PANC-1 and AsPC-1 Human Pancreas Tumor Cells, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7337241/
[vi] Antitumor activity of plant cannabinoids with emphasis on the effect of cannabidiol on human breast carcinoma, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16728591/
[vii] Cannabidiolic acid, a major cannabinoid in fiber-type cannabis, is an inhibitor of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell migration, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378427412012854?via%3Dihub.
[viii] Cannabidiolic acid exhibits entourage-like improvements of anticonvulsant activity in an acute rat model of seizures, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18556441/
[ix] The current status of artisanal cannabis for the treatment of epilepsy in the United States,” by Dustin Sulak, Russell Saneto, and Bonni Goldstein in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28254350/
[x] DOSING THCA: LESS IS MORE: Discover the clinical and laboratory research on THCA for epilepsy, chronic pain, digestive disorders, and more, https://www.projectcbd.org/ja/medicine/dosing-thca-less-more
[xi] See, Effect of combined doses of Δ 9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol or tetrahydrocannabinolic acid and cannabidiolic acid on acute nausea in male Sprague-Dawley rats, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31897571/; Effect of low doses of cannabidiolic acid and ondansetron on LiCl-induced conditioned gaping (a model of nausea-induced behaviour) in rats, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23488964/
